GOVERNMENT UNIONS TURN ON DEMOCRATS AMID BUDGET BATTLE, CALL LIFELINE SCHOLARSHIPS “SCHEMES”
Harrisburg, PA- As the budget deadline looms, public sector unions such as the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) have maligned the bipartisan effort to allow students from the lowest performing government schools to attain a scholarship for tuition and fees at private schools instead.
Despite having no issues using taxpayer funds to send lobbyists to Harrisburg and organize campaigns against student choice in education, both unions mass-mailed form letters which called lifeline scholarships and tuition voucher programs “schemes.” The program, which overwhelmingly supports minority students, including a third of students in the city of Philadelphia, has become the linchpin of an otherwise troublesome and bloated budget from Governor Josh Shapiro.
“Not only is this anti-student ‘scheme’ campaign, perpetuated by our state’s most powerful unions dishonest, it underscores the chasm between far-left house Democrats and the Governor’s own reaffirmation for Lifeline Scholarships,” said Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus Member Representative Joe D’Orsie (R-York).
Some House Democratic members share this troubling view of education. Last week, Representative Probst (D-Monroe/Pike) spoke out, calling charter schools “thieves” in a House State Government Committee meeting. Opinion polls continue to show school choice is wildly popular among both Republicans and Democrats with 8/10 Pennsylvanians in support.
“Giving students who are trapped in failing government schools an opportunity to pursue an excellent education is not a ‘scheme,’ PAFC Vice Chair and Deputy Policy Chair of Education Representative David Rowe (R-Snyder/Union/Juniata/Mifflin) said, “This kind of mischaracterization is not surprising coming from a lobby whose union dues go directly toward electing Democrats here in Pennsylvania.”
With all due respect. Money comes with strings. This has nothing to do with the underprivileged. It has to do with the state controlling all educational opportunities by directly funding the educated, rather than the educators. It will be impossible for institutions to function without government regulations and failed curricula once this is in place. Right now you have under privileged kids trying to get into better schools. That's admirable and we need to help, but if you go forward with this plan there will be no good schools left for these people to aspire to.
Now with Weingarten in charge things will go from bad to worse get the kids out of a failed system you can’t change things by throwing money at it get the union out of education and fund all districts and keep the union out let the locals run it and give them a chance the department of education has made a mess of it get government out of the schools so the kids can learn with no strings don’t leave Weingarten any more kids to ruin